Ed Dickens stands on the front of Engine 4014 at the Pomona Fairgrounds on Monday, Jan. 13. After 51 years at the RailGiants Train Museum on the LA County Fairgrounds, the historic steam engine known as Big Boy will be towed to Colton on Sunday, Jan. 26, beginning its journey to Cheyenne, Wyo. where it will be restored to service as a rolling museum for Union Pacific.

Big Boy's name plate. The historic steam engine will be towed on Sunday, Jan. 26, from the Pomona Fairgrounds to Union Pacific's Colton yards. The engine is en route to Cheyenne, Wyo., where it will be restored as a rolling museum.

Union Pacific’s historic steam engine, No. 4014, will be towed early Sunday from the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds – its home for the past half century – and onto Metrolink’s tracks for a slow journey to Covina.

Rail fans can view the enormous steam engine there from 7 a.m. until 8 a.m. Then it will continue its journey to Union Pacific’s west Colton yard, where more viewing opportunities are planned.

Once it reaches Colton, the engine will have covered the first 56 miles of its 1,293-mile trip to Cheyenne, Wyo., where the 1.2-million-pound locomotive will undergo a complete renovation. In four or five years, it will return to the rails as a rolling museum for Union Pacific.

The huge engine has been on display for 51 years at the RailGiants Train Museum on the Pomona fairgrounds. Members of the Southern California Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, who operate the museum, painstakingly cared for the engine over the years, some with the hope that it would one day run again.

In exchange for giving up the Big Boy, one of only eight remaining in the world, the museum is receiving a Union Pacific diesel locomotive, No. 3105, an insulated box car and a caboose. That equipment will be moved onto the fairgrounds while Big Boy is traveling to Colton.

Ed Dickens Jr., senior manager of Union Pacific’s Heritage Operations, is overseeing the Big Boy project, which he has compared to reviving a dinosaur.

“This is like a zoo having the opportunity to bring back T-rex,” Dickens said during an interview on a Union Pacific video.

Engine 4014 was built in 1941, one of 25 engines that were powerful enough to haul 3,600-ton freight trains over the Wasatch Mountains between Utah and Wyoming. The huge steam engines did their jobs well, but their careers were shortened by the advent of diesel electric engines. Engine 4014 was retired after just 18 years.

Most of the engines were cut up for scrap. The eight that were saved went to museums across the country, but most weren’t as carefully maintained as 4014, which is why it was chosen for the restoration project.

Big Boy is expected to remain in Colton until March.

“There’s going to be so many people that want to witness the history of the Big Boy going over Cajon Pass, going through Las Vegas, going through all of the route all the way to Salt Lake City and ultimately to Cheyenne. So we’re planning it at a time when we’re going to have the best weather possible,” Dickens said.

Contact Jan Sears at 951-368-9477 or jsears@pe.com

VIEWING BIG BOY

Historic steam engine No. 4014 will be towed from the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona early on Sunday to the Covina Metrolink station, where it will be on display for one hour.

From there it will continue on to Union Pacific’s west Colton yards. Railroad officials ask that rail fans view the engine from a safe distance and keep off railroad right of way. Metrolink warns that trespassers will be cited.

IN COVINA: 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday.

WHERE: Covina Metrolink Station, 600 N. Citrus Ave.

METROLINK SERVICE: The move will disrupt service on Metrolink’s San Bernardino line. Passengers on the final trains Saturday, Jan. 25, and the first four Sunday, Jan. 26, will instead be bused to their destinations. Visit metrolinktrains.com for more information. Regular rail service is scheduled to resume at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.